August 2006

15 Aug 2006. Strip 8.
A change of punchline.
The first thirty or so strips were drawn around 1999/2000, before being put to one side. That’s why the style is a bit different and the handwriting has changed: they were drawn at a much larger size than the later strips were, because at that point having to scan the strips into a computer wasn’t something I’d considered. It also meant that some of the punchlines were out of date by the time I considered distributing them via Comics Sherpa.
You’ll notice that the speech balloon is much larger than the words inside it. That’s because the original punchline was much longer.
Here’s the original. Very turn of the century...
"Exactly the same books - only with Millennium in the title and two quid on the price."

16 Aug 2006. Strip 9.
Barbara Cartland.
Quite an amazing lady. Related to Princess Diana’s family, she was a bit of a tearaway in her youth, flying around Europe between the wars in her own plane. But she’s best known as a writer of romantic fiction, the sort of stuff that comes out in Mills and Boon and Silhouette paperbacks with Fabio on the cover. She could churn them out at a rate of one a fortnight*, and I think she still holds the record for most prolific author in the Guinness Book of Records. Usually wore pink and coupled this with make up that Tammy-Faye Bakker would consider overdone. Not unlike a human meringue.
*Two weeks.

18 Aug 2006. Strip 11.
Thomas the Tank Engine.
A series of children’s picture books about talking steam engines written by the Rev W.A.Audrey. The engines are all male and the carriages are all female. Make of that what you will. In the TV show, Thomas is voiced by Ringo Starr.

21 Aug. Strip 13.
Eggy soldiers.
Take some sliced bread and toast it to the point where it achieves structural rigidity. Cut into four strips. Then take one soft boiled egg in an egg cup, with the yolk still runny, and cut the top off. Dip the toast in the yolk. Eat. Yum.

24 Aug. Strip 16.
The Transport Caff.
In Britain’s culinary ecosystem, these hold a similar place to the roadside diner. Except the food is much worse and usually comes fried and swimming in grease, accompanied with two slices of buttered Sunblest and a chipped mug of tea so strong the spoon can stand up in it. In my mind they are forever synonymous with squeezy plastic tomatoes full of ketchup. Now an almost extinct species, as drive in MacDonalds have started springing up everywhere.
A lone Little Chef still survives on the A21 in the Weald of Sussex. Please support it for as long as you can, until you keel over dead from a heart attack.

31 Aug. Strip 22.
Deed poll.
Brad’s surname has now been changed to Difford.
Because.